Welcome to Parent Pixels, a parenting newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. This week:
Guess who’s back, back again? After facing an uncertain path in the Senate, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) successfully passed the Senate last Thursday. The historic vote was overwhelmingly bipartisan (86 to 1 to take up the measure), but things will be less rosy in the House, where KOSA faces hurdles in the form of free speech concerns and Big Tech lobbyists.
KOSA would introduce the most sweeping child online safety reform since the now-archaic Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was passed in 1998. As a recap, KOSA would:
While other child safety bills are also under consideration, KOSA is the closest to becoming law, although we won’t hear anything about its status until the House returns in September. Concerns about KOSA include stifling First Amendment-protected speech and isolating vulnerable youth from accessing information on social media.
At the same time, a growing body of experts are calling for stricter regulations on social media platforms for the sake of children’s mental health.
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said that social media should have a warning label, similar to the one required on tobacco products. A new report by the Biden-Harris Administration’s Kids Online Health and Safety Task Force urges the industry to make design choices that prioritize kids’ well-being, such as making privacy protections for youth the default and use data-driven methods to detect and prevent online harassment.
The kids are not alright, and child online safety legislation is overdue. If KOSA doesn’t pass, other options on the table include Sammy’s Law, which would require social media companies to integrate with child safety software, making it easier for parents to supervise their children’s online activities.
“Finalizing these safety bills has been a long and winding and difficult road, but one thing I’ve known from the start: It sure would be worth it,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said in a floor speech before the vote. “The message from these parents has been simple and consistent: It’s been long enough.”
Parent Pixels is a biweekly newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox a day early? Subscribe here.
What can parents do to make sure their teens aren’t texting personal information to strangers? Show this list of tips to your kiddo, or use it as a springboard for a conversation about texting safety.
VPNs are a popular way for kids to get around some parental control settings. Read on to learn about VPNs, how to know if your child is using one, and what you can do about it. (Psst: VPNs don’t impact BrightCanary monitoring.)
It’s important to give kids a degree of privacy, but it’s also important to guide, protect, and support them online and offline. Plus, it makes sense to be more hands-on when your kid first gets a phone or tablet, then give them more autonomy and independence as they grow older and more mature. All that to say, how do you talk to your child about privacy — especially when you start to introduce parental monitoring? Use these conversation-starters.
😫 How do you lay down ground rules about devices? What about tips to handle cyberbullying and online abuse? Teaching children to navigate the online world is a key part of modern parenting. In this Q&A, experts pass on tips to make it feel less overwhelming.
🔎 Meta has, historically, not been the most forthcoming with allowing researchers to review its data. But now, “after years of contentious relationships with academic researchers, Meta is opening a small pilot program that would allow a handful of them to access Instagram data for up to about six months in order to study the app’s effect on the well-being of teens and young adults.”
👉 We mentioned the Kids Online Safety and Health Task Force’s new report earlier in this newsletter, but we recommend taking some time to check it out — it’s packed with advice and conversation-starters for parents and caregivers, plus free resources for parents of tweens and teens.
Welcome to Parent Pixels, a parenting newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. This week:
It’s a familiar scene of modern parenting: your child is upset, you’re already stressed, and you need just two minutes of peace — so you hand them a phone or tablet as a distraction. While this might provide a quick fix, new research suggests it could lead to long-term issues with their ability to control their emotions.
A new study found that when parents frequently use digital devices to calm their children, it can result in more severe issues with emotional regulation down the line. This creates a vicious cycle: parents with kids who have difficulty managing anger are more likely to use digital devices to cope with their children’s emotional outbursts. The child learns to rely on their digital device, instead of learning how to soothe themselves on their own.
“Tantrums cannot be cured by digital devices,” said Dr. Veronika Konok, the study’s first author and a researcher at Eötvös Loránd University. “Children have to learn how to manage their negative emotions for themselves. They need the help of their parents during this learning process, not the help of a digital device.”
We get it: sometimes, you need a time-out. But this research highlights the importance of fostering healthier digital habits and emotional skills in kids, instead of always relying on an iPad.
This study focused on younger children, but what’s interesting is that a similar trend exists among teens. A recent Rutgers University-New Brunswick study found that teens are intentionally creating roadblocks in their social media use to remind them to take a break or stop scrolling altogether.
For example, older teens reported using reminder apps and calendar notifications to resist the temptation to scroll social media for hours, especially when they’re feeling bored or have nothing else to do. Older kids are aware that social media apps are designed to keep them hooked for hours, but younger children may not have this same level of self-awareness.
Some takeaways:
🤝 Parents should coach their children through difficult situations, help them recognize their emotions, and teach them how to handle them. When kids are bored, suggest screen-free activities before they reach for their devices.
😌 Children learn from observing their parents, so parents need to show their kids how to manage stress without immediately turning to screens.
📵 If children are having a hard time managing their screen time, that’s a sign that they’re emotionally dependent on media in an unhealthy way. Set screen time limits and plan on ways to help your child transition away from devices when their screen time is up.
Parent Pixels is a biweekly newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox a day early? Subscribe here.
We know that setting healthy screen limits is in our children’s best interest. But the pushback we face when we try to set or enforce those limits can weaken the resolve of even the most determined among us. Here’s how to handle screen time tantrums.
Parental control apps can help keep your child safe, but only if they work. These popular apps are really easy for your child to delete and defeat. Find out where they fail and what we recommend instead.
Ah, screen time tantrums. When screen time is over, does your child roll their eyes at you, or do they flail on the ground like a fish out of water? Here are some ways to talk to your child about the way they feel with screens.
🦺 Just as “it takes a village to raise a child,” safeguarding children online requires a collective effort from parents, governments, law enforcement, and tech executives. Read more from John Tanagho, Executive Director of International Justice Mission’s Center to End Online Sexual Exploitation of Children, via Fast Company.
📱 All Virginia public schools are going phone-free as of January 1, 2025. What are your thoughts about phone-free schools?
🐤 Did you know? BrightCanary text message monitoring now summarizes your child’s text threads and highlights concerning content. Take a look at the latest version of the app and let us know what you think.
Welcome to Parent Pixels, a parenting newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. This week:
If it seems like your child is glued to their screens 24/7, they might be learning from you. New research published in Pediatric Research found that parental screen use is highly associated with higher adolescent screen time and problematic social media or video game use.
This is tied to “parental modeling,” where kids learn behaviors from their parents. If they see you watching screens during meals or using your phone in bed, they don’t learn to set boundaries around device use. This is problematic because screen use during meals and at bedtime is linked to higher overall screen time and addictive behaviors, like struggling to reduce social media use and dropping everything to respond to a notification on their phone.
“It’s especially important that parents follow their own rules and practice what they preach,” said Jason Nagata, a pediatrician at the University of California at San Francisco and the lead author of the study, “because even if they think their kids aren’t watching them, they really are.”
What parents can do: First, recognize that screens aren’t inherently bad — but kids need to learn healthy device use. Here are some recommendations:
🛑 Set screen time limits and stick to them. The study found that parental monitoring and limiting adolescent screen time were linked to less problematic screen use. Tools like Apple Screen Time, Google Family Link, and apps like Unpluq can help.
🍽️ Enforce screen-free zones at home. Start with no phones at the dinner table and no phones in the bedroom at night. Explain why these changes matter, such as improving sleep by avoiding blue light.
💬 Talk about device use. If you struggle to avoid certain apps, be honest with your child. This can spark a conversation, as they might be dealing with similar issues, allowing you to brainstorm solutions together.
Parent Pixels is a biweekly newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox a day early? Subscribe here.
What is Apple Screen Time work, and how can parents use it to set limits on their kids’ devices? We break down essential tips for this free resource that every parent should know.
Looking for new ideas for spending time with family this sumer? We’ve got you covered with eight ideas for quality time.
One way to get your child’s buy-in when you’re introducing the whole “use your phone less” topic? Get them talking. Save these conversation-starters for your next check-in.
📵 The largest US school district has banned phones in schools. The Los Angeles Unified School District will ban cellphones during the entire school day, possibly by having students place their phones in lockers or pouches. The ban takes effect in January.
❗An exclusive WSJ report found that Instagram recommends sexual videos to accounts for 13-year-olds. The findings align with a 2022 Meta analysis that found teens saw three times as many prohibited posts containing nudity, 1.7 times as much violence and 4.1 times as much bullying content as users above the age of 30. According to Meta, teens under 16 aren’t supposed to be shown sexually explicit content at all — more reason to not trust social media companies to protect our kids.
👀 Word on the street is that there’s a new look with BrightCanary text monitoring. Have you tried our new text message summaries with built-in advice and coaching? Download the latest version of BrightCanary today!
😌How do you cultivate mindful digital habits at home? We spoke with Unpluq CEO Caroline Cadwell about how parents can model appropriate digital behavior for kids.
Welcome to Parent Pixels, a parenting newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. This week:
What if the next time your child signs up for a social media platform, they’re faced with a health warning — the same kind of label you see on cigarettes?
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy recently called for a warning label that states social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents. The statement comes after Murthy issued a health advisory in May 2023, warning that social media is contributing to the youth mental health crisis.
What is a warning label? You’ve likely seen these labels on tobacco and alcohol products. A surgeon general’s warning label is a public statement that calls attention to a critical public health issue.
Warning labels can’t be implemented without congressional approval, but Murthy’s statement furthers a growing movement for regulation on social media to help keep kids safe and minimize the dangers of addictive design features. For example, New York recently passed a measure that bans social media platforms from algorithmically recommending content to children.
It’s not over: Murthy acknowledges that a warning label, on its own, wouldn’t make social media safer for young people. He also urges legislators to:
“There is no seatbelt for parents to click, no helmet to snap in place, no assurance that trusted experts have investigated and ensured that these platforms are safe for our kids,” he wrote. “There are just parents and their children, trying to figure it out on their own, pitted against some of the best product engineers and most well-resourced companies in the world.”
Parents can help, too — by creating more phone-free experiences at home and at school, supervising kids’ social media use, and delaying giving kids access to phones until after middle school. Stay involved, ask questions, and understand what your child is doing on their devices.
Parent Pixels is a biweekly newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox a day early? Subscribe here.
For today’s kids, digital literacy comes into play with everything from school projects to social media. When kids are skilled in digital literacy, they’re more capable of identifying reputable information and sources. Here’s how to raise digitally literate kids.
Smishing — phishing’s younger sibling — is an increasingly common form of cyberattack and one parents need to know about so they can help their kids stay safe. But what is smishing? Read on to learn what this scam entails and how to prevent it from happening to your child.
You know you should talk to your child about what they’re doing on their phone, but it can feel awkward and intrusive. Here are some ways to start the conversation:
🎮 Is your child developing an unhealthy relationship with video games? Melanie Hempe of ScreenStrong shares a video game addiction test you can use today.
🔨 Apple recently announced a fix to a problematic Screen Time bug that allowed kids to view explicit content. (If your child is getting around Apple Screen Time, here are some troubleshooting tips.)
🎉 BrightCanary is now free for school teachers, counselors, and mental health professionals! Learn more in this letter from our CEO Karl Stillner.
Welcome to Parent Pixels, a parenting newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. This week:
New research conducted by the NORC at the University of Chicago investigates how social media affects teen mental health, and the results are a mixed bag. The study included 1,274 teens and young adults aged 14 to 22.
Key findings:
What this means for parents: Lead researcher Amanda Lenhart suggests keeping communication open and encouraging teens to be aware of their emotions while using social media. Ask questions like, “How am I feeling right now? Did I see anything that made me feel sad?”
Parental involvement is crucial. Many young adults wish their parents had delayed their social media use. By staying engaged and setting clear rules, you can help your teens safely navigate the digital world.
Parent Pixels is a biweekly newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox a day early? Subscribe here.
A recent study published in Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reveals that any form of parental distraction, whether digital or not, negatively affects parent-child interaction.
You may have heard about technoference (when devices interrupt family time). This study asked, “Are the screens the problem, or is it the fact that the parent is distracted?”
In the study, 50 parent-child pairs (with kids around 22 months old) were split into three groups. Group one had no disruptions. Group two parents were asked to stop play time to fill out a paper questionnaire, while group three parents used a tablet. The kids didn’t care whether the distraction was digital or analog. All distractions equally upset them, hurting the quality of interaction.
Big picture: Principal investigator Nevena Dimitrova said the screens themselves aren’t the problem. “Instead, it seems to be the fact that the parent is not fully engaged in the interaction that negatively impacts parent-child communication.”
Said another way, it’s not your iPhone’s fault — it’s the distraction. Want to boost your bonding time? Try minimizing distractions (easier said than done, we know). Put away your phone or set aside non-digital tasks when you’re having one-on-one time with your family. Giving your full attention can do wonders for your child’s emotional health and development.
The end of the school year is coming fast. If you’re a parent of tweens looking for ways to beat the summer boredom blues, we have you covered with this list.
Every child matures differently, and that’s especially true for devices. If you’re monitoring your child’s texts, the way you approach that supervision will change as they age. Here’s what you need to know.
The start of summer also means your child will have way more time for screens. Here are some conversation-starters to help manage their screen time:
📵 What happens when you don’t give kids phones until high school? The Cut profiles several teens whose parents delayed giving them devices, how that decision impacted their social lives, and how they use devices today.
🤔 Parents, we want to know: How do you handle summer screen time? Reply and share your thoughts! We’ll share a few responses in a future issue.
🔐 Did you know that the BrightCanary app has an easy-to-use way to store all your child’s passwords in one place? Learn more about the Password Vault — a free feature available in the BrightCanary app!
Welcome to Parent Pixels, a parenting newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. This week:
Every other week, we see new headlines about the damaging effects smartphones and social media have on our children’s mental health. But what about practical solutions and tips for parents? Those get less attention. Until now.
Two recent studies reveal the critical role parents play in promoting healthy tech habits. Spoiler: the findings indicate that battling unhealthy tech boils down to communication and rule-setting, not ruling with an iron fist or spying on your kid.
A study published in JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting explored how digital interventions can help fight internet addiction (IA) in young children. IA is a behavioral disorder defined as excessive and uncontrolled use of the internet and digital devices. The study involved interviews with 28 parents of children aged 7–11 in Indonesia, along with child therapists. Why Indonesia? The risk of internet addiction tends to be higher in lower-income regions with lower quality of life, and the country has a high prevalence of IA, particularly among children.
The second study, published in Addictive Behaviors, examined strategies to reduce problematic smartphone use (PSU) among adolescents. PSU refers to a behavioral pattern where a person excessively uses their smartphone in a way that significantly interferes with daily life. This research involved 1,187 families with kids between the ages of 14–18 years old over a six-month period.
The findings of these two studies point to two facts about parenting in the digital age: tools like Apple Screen Time can aid in monitoring, but they’re most effective when paired with open communication and clear rules.
Here are some practical steps you can take:
Parent Pixels is a biweekly newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox a day early? Subscribe here.
If you’re frustrated that your child keeps finding a way around their screen time limits, you’re not alone. Read on to learn some common ways kids turn off Screen Time and what parents can do about it.
As you get ready to hand your child their new device, it’s useful to create a family texting contract with expectations on how they will behave with their new privileges. Here’s how to do it.
One of the most effective methods for keeping your child safe online is to have regular conversations about their internet activity and what they encounter. Here are some conversation-starters to get you going:
✍️ President Biden has signed the REPORT Act into law. The bipartisan bill requires online platforms and social media companies to report child sex trafficking and online enticement to National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s tip line. The bill is the first major piece of legislation that would put enforcement and accountability mechanisms on social media platforms in years, according to the senators behind the bill.
⚖️ In response to the TikTok ban, both TikTok’s parent company ByteDance and a group of TikTok creators have officially sued the U.S. government.
🐤 New product feature: BrightCanary now displays deleted text messages in your child’s text threads. Download BrightCanary on the App Store today!
Welcome to Parent Pixels, a parenting newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. This week:
Before we talk about child online safety legislation, let’s talk about seat belts.
In the 1980s, states began implementing laws requiring people to wear seat belts in cars. Despite studies from the 1950s demonstrating that seat belts save lives, it wasn’t until these laws were implemented that buckling up became routine. You enter a car, you fasten your seat belt. It’s a simple safety step that’s also mandated by law.
However, between the 1950s and 1980s, there was a time when people knew that seat belts were protective — but they didn’t necessarily use them. Later, laws were passed because safety protections can help save lives.
A similar discussion is happening today with social media. A growing body of research points to social media’s negative effects on kids, ranging from their well-being to their brain development. But there are no national regulations to safeguard children on social media, and those that are passed at the state level face significant legal pushback from major tech companies.
In Congress, several pieces of legislation that impact children online are currently under discussion. Let’s look at a few of them making headway this legislative session:
Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA): Sets new safety standards for social media companies and holds them accountable for protecting minors. Users would also be allowed to opt-out of addictive design features, such as algorithm-based recommendations, infinite scrolling, and notifications. The bill awaits vote in the Senate and has been introduced in the House.
Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0): Updates the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). This measure would make it illegal for websites to collect data on children under the age of 16, outlaw marketing specifically aimed at kids, and allow parents to erase their kids’ information on websites. The bill awaits vote in the Senate.
Sammy’s Law: Would require social media companies to integrate with child safety software, making it easier for parents to supervise their children’s online activities. The bill is currently in the House subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce.
Platform Accountability and Transparency Act (PATA): Provides protected ways for researchers to study data from big internet companies, focusing on how these platforms impact society. PATA would make it clearer how online platforms manage children’s data and the effects of their algorithms. The bill was read twice in the Senate and referred to committee.
Also worth noting is the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA), a significant bipartisan measure yet to reach committee. It would establish national privacy and security standards, requiring transparent data usage and giving consumers, particularly children, greater control over their personal information.
In the future, we may look back at this period and wonder how we didn’t have stricter measures in place to protect kids online — just like that period when we didn’t wear seat belts. You can talk to lawmakers about the importance of children’s online safety legislation. To find your representative, go to congress.gov/members/find-your-member.
Parent Pixels is a biweekly newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox a day early? Subscribe here.
You know you should monitor your child’s texts, but actually understanding their messages is a whole other story. Like previous generations of kids, Gen Z and Gen Alpha use slang to put their own spin on the way they communicate. We break down what it all means, bruh.
While it’s responsible to monitor your child’s text messages, that doesn’t mean anything goes. Here are some of the top mistakes parents make when monitoring their child’s texts so you can avoid making them yourself.
How will you check in with your child this week? Save these conversation-starters for your next tech check-in.
📵 Following a smartphone ban in Norway schools, middle school kids report feeling mentally healthier and performing better academically. After three years of the policy, girls’ visits to mental health professionals decreased by 60%, and both boys and girls experienced 43–46% less bullying.
🕯️ According to a new survey by Ohio State University, a majority of parents experience isolation, loneliness, and burnout from the demands of parenthood. A whopping 62% feel burned out by their responsibilities as a parent. Parental burnout researcher Kate Gawlik, DNP, stressed the need for self-care and the value of connection, encouraging parents to find local parent groups.
🐤🤖 Did you know? BrightCanary features an AI chatbot called Ask the Canary: an easy way to anonymously get answers to your toughest parenting questions. Find it in the BrightCanary app.
Welcome to Parent Pixels, a parenting newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. This week:
Another week, another round of TikTok drama: last week, the House passed a bill requiring the forced sale or ban of TikTok in the U.S.
The bill, titled the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (H.R. 7521), requires TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app’s U.S. operations within nine months (previously six, but the latest version of the bill extended the timeline with the potential to become a full year). Otherwise, much like dancing in Footloose, it would be illegal for TikTok to be available for download in U.S. app stores.
Lawmakers claim that TikTok poses a national security threat because the Chinese government could potentially access the data of U.S. users and use the platform’s algorithm to influence American public opinion. TikTok stated it has never been asked to provide U.S. user data to the Chinese government, wouldn’t do so if asked, and doesn’t tailor content based on political motives.
What happens next? The proposal sailed through a House panel earlier this month, but faced an uncertain future in Congress until it was attached to a foreign aid package that will send funds to Ukraine and Israel, making it more likely to be passed in the Senate. If passed, the bill could land on President Biden’s desk in the next week.
This doesn’t mean TikTok will be banned in time for Mother’s Day. The platform would have nine months to find a buyer, although it’s not clear if TikTok’s algorithm — aka the thing that makes it so compulsively scrollable and knows exactly which ASMR cooking videos to show you — will come with it.
If your child asks about the TikTok ban: Explain the topic in a way that’s appropriate for your child. The platform hasn’t been banned, but lawmakers are asking TikTok to find a new owner because they’re worried about the way they’re treating our personal information. Now’s a great time to explain how social media algorithms work, why it’s important to think critically about the information we consume, and how a bill moves through Congress.
Parent Pixels is a biweekly newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox a day early? Subscribe here.
The American Psychological Association (APA) recently released another report on social media, calling on tech companies to fundamentally redesign social media to correct harmful features that are unsafe for adolescents.
Last year, the APA issued a health advisory on social media use in adolescence, in which the organization recognized the potential social benefits of social media but called out the need to protect kids from harmful content and problematic behaviors. This new report highlights the fact that companies and policymakers “still have made few meaningful changes” (translation: haven’t taken actions that’ll actually help kids).
The report highlights the ways in which common features of social media, such as infinite scroll and notifications, negatively impact kids. It also suggests paths forward for companies and policymakers. Some takeaways:
Apple Screen Time is a great tool to set limits and restrict certain activities. But Apple parental controls aren’t foolproof. We break down common complaints and new ways to keep your kiddo safe online.
Whether your kid is already obsessed with their Switch or wants a console to play with friends, you should know that Nintendo Switch parental controls exist, and you can use them to set time limits, limit certain games, and more.
How will you check in with your child this week? Save these conversation-starters for your next tech check-in.
🤔 What are social media algorithms, and how should you talk to your kids about them? BrightCanary CEO Karl Stillner writes for the Family Online Safety Institute about what parents should know.
🚫 Meta has rolled out new tools to help protect against sextortion and intimate image abuse on Instagram and Facebook.
👀 Do you ever look through your teen’s smartphone? According to Pew Research Center, 50% of parents say they do, and 47% say they set time limits on their teens’ phone use.
📞 The latest Gen Z trend: dumbphones. In other words, flip phones are back (here are our recommendations).
Welcome to Parent Pixels, a parenting newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. This week:
If your teen suddenly has a new lexicon of mental health terms, like “trauma response” and “major depressive disorder,” TikTok may be to blame. A poll by EdWeek found that 55% of students use social media to self-diagnose mental health conditions, and 65% of teachers say they’ve seen the phenomenon in their classrooms.
“Kids are all coming in and I’m asking them, ‘Where did you get this diagnosis?’” said Don Grant, national adviser for healthy device management at Newport Healthcare, in an interview with The Hill. Grant said he would get responses such as “Oh, there’s an [influencer],” “Oh, I took a quiz,” or “Oh, there’s a group on social media that talks about it.”
Social media can help kids understand their feelings and find ways to cope. The EdWeek poll found that 72% of educators believe social media has made it easier for students to be more open about their mental health struggles. And it makes sense that kids would turn to a space they know — social media and online groups — to get information, rather than finding a mental health professional first (or talking to their parents).
However, the topic gets tricky when you consider the fact that social media sites don’t exactly verify that the people sharing medical advice are, in fact, medical experts. While there are plenty of experts sharing legitimate information online, there are also influencers who are paid to talk about products that improved their anxiety and off-label medications that cured their depression.
Big picture: Self-diagnosing on social media is also problematic because algorithms can create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Most algorithms, like TikTok, use a user’s activity to determine what they see next on their feed. If a teen thinks they have depression, they’ll see more content about depression — which may confirm their self-diagnosis, even if they aren’t clinically depressed.
As parents, it’s important to talk to your child about mental health, how to cope with big emotions, and what to do if they need a professional. But it’s also essential to know where they’re getting their mental health information and what they’re seeing on their social media feeds.
Don’t dismiss their feelings outright — be curious. Talk to your child about verifying their sources of information. If they’re getting medical advice from an online creator, are they an actual doctor or therapist? Or are they simply someone who’s popular online?
Parent Pixels is a biweekly newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox a day early? Subscribe here.
Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed a bill that bans kids under 14 from creating social media accounts and requires parental consent for kids under 16. The bill requires that companies delete accounts belonging to 14- and 15-year-olds and implement age verification measures to ensure that kids aren’t lying about their ages.
Florida’s bill is the most restrictive social media ban in the nation, and that’s after DeSantis vetoed an earlier version of the bill that would have banned all accounts for kids under 16. At the bill-signing ceremony, Republican Speaker Paul Renner said, “A child in their brain development doesn’t have the ability to know that they’re being sucked into these addictive technologies and to see the harm and step away from it, and because of that we have to step in for them.”
Legal upheaval: The bill takes effect Jan. 1, 2025, pending any legal challenges. Tech industry groups have already come out against the bill, including NetChoice, an association that represents major social media platforms and is currently battling with the Supreme Court over a separate social media law.
“This bill goes too far in taking away parents’ rights,” Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani said in a news release. “Instead of banning social media access, it would be better to ensure improved parental oversight tools, improved access to data to stop bad actors, alongside major investments in Florida’s mental health systems and programs.”
In our last issue, we covered Utah’s decision to repeal and replace its social media law after months of legal challenges that delayed the bill’s implementation. Although DeSantis and Renner have signaled that they’re ready to fight to keep Florida’s social media ban in place, time will tell whether or not Florida’s kids will have to wait until their sweet 16 to get on Snapchat.
How will you check in with your child about online safety this week? Save these conversation-starters for your next check-in.
Sleep can impact everything from brain performance, to mood, to mental and physical health. Our children aren’t getting enough sleep, either, and screens are one of the prime suspects. But how does screen time affect sleep?
Pinterest use is up among teens. Gen Zers are using the website as a canvas for self-expression and exploration. Learn more about how to keep your child safe on the site with Pinterest parental controls.
😮💨 What is the “mental load” of parenting, and how does it affect your emotions, sleep quality, and job performance?
🚩 What are the red flags that you need to worry about your child’s mental health? Save this list from Techno Sapiens.
🤝 Rules and restrictions aren’t the end-all, be-all to parenting in the digital age — you also need a healthy, emotionally rich relationship with your teen. Read more at Psychology Today.
📵 When it comes to protecting kids’ mental health, Florida’s social media ban won’t be that simple, writes David French for the New York Times.
Welcome to Parent Pixels, a parenting newsletter filled with practical advice, news, and resources to support you and your kids in the digital age. This week:
Last year, Utah passed a first-in-the-nation law that prevented kids from accessing social platforms without parental consent, among other restrictions. Fast-forward to now, and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed a pair of bills into law that repeal and replace almost everything. What happened?
As a recap, the 2023 Social Media Regulation Act: “required parental consent before kids can sign up for sites like TikTok and Instagram, prohibited kids under 18 from using social media between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., require age verification for anyone who wants to use social media in the state, and sought to prevent tech companies from luring kids to their apps using addictive features,” via NPR.
Following major Big Tech lawsuits, Utah’s legislature recently passed H.B. 464 and S.B. 194. The new bills maintain age verification but repeal the ban on addictive design features, only require platforms to obtain parental consent if a child attempts to change certain privacy settings, and don’t require platforms to enable parental controls unless the minor agrees.
Like the previous version, the new legislation creates a process where parents can take social media companies to court. Parents can sue for a minimum of $10,000 per incident if a child has an “adverse mental health outcome” as a result of excessive social media use.
Big picture: Utah’s about-face underscores both the importance and difficulty of implementing social media regulation. After signing the Social Media Regulation Act into law in 2023, Gov. Cox nearly dared critics to sue the state over the law — and they did. NetChoice alleged the restrictions violated First Amendment free speech protections, and Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression filed a second lawsuit claiming that the age verification requirement is unconstitutional. Florida’s own social media ban, which was recently signed into law, faces similar legal challenges and delays.
Utah’s “repeal and replace” version of the bill aims to address some of the concerns raised in the lawsuits, while still taking steps to protect kids online. Sen. Mike McKell, one of the revised bills’ authors, said that there is data to support — and justify — the state’s push to put guardrails around social media use at the state level.
“One of the bars that we have to overcome in legislating when we’re looking at First Amendment issues is whether there is a compelling state interest,” he told the Salt Lake Tribune. “We’re trying to tell the court explicitly why we’re passing this. Here’s the intent behind it. Here’s what we’re seeing in our state and why we’re passing this law.”
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It’s another bad PR week for Meta: the Wall Street Journal reports that federal prosecutors are looking into whether Meta, the parent company behind platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, facilitate and profit from the online sale of drugs.
It’s alarmingly easy to find controlled substances for sale online. A 2021 report by the Tech Transparency Project found that it takes just two clicks for kids to find potentially deadly drugs for sale on social media. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, “Drug traffickers have turned smartphones into a one-stop shop to market, sell, buy, and deliver deadly, fake prescription pills and other dangerous drugs” — which can easily contain deadly doses of fentanyl.
US prosecutors sent Meta subpoenas last year and have been asking questions as part of a criminal grand jury probe. They have also requested records related to drug content or illicit sale of drugs via Meta’s platforms.
Bottom line: Investigations don’t always lead to formal charges, but this report places even more scrutiny on social media companies and how accountable they are for the content posted on their platforms. In a statement, a spokesperson for Meta said, “The sale of illicit drugs is against our policies and we work to find and remove this content from our services. Meta proactively cooperates with law enforcement authorities to help combat the sale and distribution of illicit drugs.”
We advocate for regular conversations about tech use and online safety. But how do you start those chats? We’re launching a new section this week: conversation-starters to kick off important dialogues with your kiddo about their devices, online interactions, and more. How will you check in with your kid about online safety this week?
You check your child’s phone or get an alert from your monitoring app, and you learn they’ve been messaging friends about drugs or looking at drug-related content online. Here’s what to do next.
“Sexting” refers to sending or receiving sexually explicit videos, images, or text messages. Here are some tips to talk to your teen about sexting, including the potential consequences and a plan for safe texting practices.
🕒 TikTok ban update: H.R. 7521 is sitting in a Senate committee, which is kinda like the waiting room of bills. The measure would ban applications controlled by foreign adversaries of the United States that pose a national security risk, and it unanimously passed the House earlier this month. The vote was held following a closed-door security briefing about TikTok’s risks, and a bipartisan group of legislators are pushing to declassify that information and hold a public hearing. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn said, “As Congress and the Administration consider steps to address TikTok’s ties to the Chinese government, it is critically important that the American people, especially TikTok users, understand the national security issues at stake.”
📵 The costs of a phone-based childhood are harming our kids, writes social psychologist Jonathan Haidt.
👻 Snapchat is rolling out a feature that makes the messaging experience more like texts. The messages won’t vanish, but both users have to opt-in to the new setting.
👀 72% of teens feel peaceful without their smartphone, according to a new Pew Research Center survey — but 46% of teens say their parents are sometimes distracted by their phone when they’re trying to talk to them.
